OMG! AVATAR

[VanillaLovelace]

As some others already mentioned, you should post a picture of your avatar ... and I am quite sure, you will get a lot of tips on how to improve it ... or maybe give you a feedback like „hey, your avi is awesome ... why you want to change it?“

[Nalates Urriah]

If one has not studied drawing/painting of humans it can be hard to understand what makes a pleasing form.

We see RL and SL people and think they are beautiful or not. We do not give a lot of thought to why the look pleases us. As a study you might collect images of those avatars you find gorgeous. When you have a bunch go through them and see if you can find what is consistent across the collection. It may be small nose, dark almond shaped eyes, dark hair long or short, small breasts, l o n g legs, 6-pack abs, ... make the list of what YOU consider beautiful. Then setup to build an avatar that meets the list's criteria.

While much of our preference is baked into that evaluation of expectation there are some things we ALL expect and some we just prefer. J-Lo butts and exaggerations are popular with some. There are fat-girl porn magazines... they sell. So, some like that look. For others it is the slim athletic body. We decide what we want to look and work toward that look. I am perpetually tweaking my shape and face and have been since 2008.

Not everyone is going to like my look. I'm not into JLo butts. Tho some really pull the look off well... like J-Lo, who is talented and HAWT. Yet, I prefer a Halle Berry shaped body. 

There are tools in the marketplace to help you make an avatar with human correct proportions. But, you can get the Standard Size shapes for free in the marketplace. These are good starting points with proportionally correct shapes. You can then tweak these shapes to your personal taste as they are full permission shapes.

Faces are way difficult because we are subconsciously aware of incredible detail in the face using it to decide numerous factors... friendly, lustful, angry, hostel...  So, finding a head that by default is close to the look we want is the easiest way to get to where we want to look.

[Talligurl]

I guess I am the oddball, I do not obsess over my shape at all. I use a store bought shape with just one small modification, I shortened my legs slightly. This is not to say I do not obsess over how I look, but I just focus on my hair and clothes.

[FairreLilette]

On 8/18/2019 at 7:10 PM, FashionEye said:

OMG! Am I the only person who's been on second life for quite some time and still can not get their avatar appearance right? No matter how many make overs, no matter how many skins I buy i just can't get it to look.... idk? It really plays on my mind too when I meet other people who's avatars are just awesome!!!! it's like Okay forget it i'll just be invisible. *turns on invisible avatar* 

Also my avatar is six years old but i only started using it three years ago but i've been struggling to get it right ever since. 

Is this only me? I'd hope not. 

This is me too....I never feel it is right or what I want. 

But, I think the starting over too many times is causing some of my frustration because the hair and clothing I bought doesn't look quite right on a "new" avi I've made.

Someone mentioned shapes.  Well, I bought a shape for a Catya head when I don't have a Catya head YET, I have a Strawberry Head.  But, I wanted to try it on with a Catya Demo head and see how it all looked.  It is difficult for me to see with all those demo things in the way.  But with the shape, the head was way too small in comparison to the very large hips.  The picture looked way better!   But, no matter what shape I tried for the head it just did not look the correct size when I put the shape with my Strawberry head and tried to change the shape of the face so I could keep the body shape.  The head size just never looked the correct size.  

Some of the avatars I see in photos are just amazing.  And, I wonder why I cannot achieve that level.  I think some creator's here just have a gift.

However, if I do leave it alone for a while (after taking pictures) and then going back to look at the pictures...I can see it wasn't that bad.  But, "not that bad" isn't really what I was going for.

I am going through my first make-over and it's better but still not great.  

Edited August 24, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Skell Dagger]

14 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

But with the shape, the head was way too small in comparison to the very large hips.  The picture looked way better!   But, no matter what shape I tried for the head it just did not look the correct size when I put the shape with my Strawberry head and tried to change the shape of the face so I could keep the body shape.  The head size just never looked the correct size. 

Did you try sizing the head up in the slider options? I find quite often that - for some strange reason - some shape-makers like to give us small heads, so I usually end up having to make the head bigger to fit the overall size of my shape.

[FairreLilette]

3 hours ago, Skell Dagger said:

Did you try sizing the head up in the slider options? I find quite often that - for some strange reason - some shape-makers like to give us small heads, so I usually end up having to make the head bigger to fit the overall size of my shape.

Yes, I did change the size of the head, and my impression of it was "oh, that's worse!"  lol  I just couldn't get any right head size.  I didn't know what to do.

And, that's the truth.

I am almost always going:  My head's too small, my head's too big (this happens a lot with changing shoe heights from flat to high mostly).  

And, the other two trouble areas seem to be leg length and buttocks.  My legs are too long, my legs are too short; as well as my butts too big, my butts too small.

This is why I am trying to go over to an avatar shape I can buy.  I was hoping it would help solve some of these problems.  Plus, it's the faces I like, too.

To the OP, I might suggest a creator I just found under the name of -bus-.  -Bus- has cute items that are very inexpensive YET LOOK EXPENSIVE.

I would like to try -bus- too.  It's an affordable way to take another chance, perhaps plus she has cute stuff. 

Edit in:  Just got one demo from -bus-.  The neck and hands are way larger for the demo than the original would be so just remember you are not going to actually "try" what you can buy.  In her notecard she says she may do custom work.  She needs to see a photo of what you want first.  Just passing the info along in case you might want to find someone who could do custom work. 

   

 

Edited August 24, 2019 by FairreLilette

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

On 8/19/2019 at 2:36 PM, Bree Giffen said:

I've had this problem with one particular avatar of mine. She started out good but when I decided to pick a new look it was skin after skin with constant reshaping of the face and body. This went on for years. In that time I made other avatars and they just clicked. Sometimes it's like you put down the paintbrush because your creation is done. But every time I logged in this avatar was always never quite right. I think it has something to do with closely you invest yourself into an avatar.

Isnt it funny how that happens... and I have had it happen to me.

[Raevyn Addams]

On 8/19/2019 at 12:10 PM, FashionEye said:

OMG! Am I the only person who's been on second life for quite some time and still can not get their avatar appearance right? No matter how many make overs, no matter how many skins I buy i just can't get it to look.... idk? It really plays on my mind too when I meet other people who's avatars are just awesome!!!! it's like Okay forget it i'll just be invisible. *turns on invisible avatar* 

Also my avatar is six years old but i only started using it three years ago but i've been struggling to get it right ever since. 

Is this only me? I'd hope not. 

I tweak practically daily, if not every other day. Because I see "flaws" or something that's bugging me that I didn't see earlier and can't place exactly what that might be; so I tweak. I've been doing this for almost 9 years. Initially I started out with a standard shape (pre-mesh) so a default body and created a shape that was most like mine. I got accused of being a troll for that. It was actually another thread in the forums that asked us to post the earliest pic of our avatars that I realized how consistent my look has been. That's because initially it most mirrored my real life self. Over the years with the release of mesh heads and bodies and clothes and shoes and hair and all the facets that go into creating a "work of art" I adapt my shape to suit. Rae as she is today doesn't look much like the RL me but she still carries a lot of the same characteristics; the dark hair and eyes, round face and thin nose etc: that's all reflective of the RL me. But overall she has evolved beyond that initial vision. In a sense she has grown into her own, much the way a character or main protagonist does in a fictional story. 

As independent from me as she is, stylistically I still make conscious decisions. I take a few key characteristics from celebrities that I think are pretty and try and match that as best I can into Rae without ever being accused of copying. My best friend (that I met in SL and has been around a lot longer than I) is vocally opposed to copiers as she's had people copy her avatar down to an almost mirrored clone. That is her ultimate pet peeve. While I respect people's decisions to create their avatar in any way they want, I actively strive for individuality. I don't want to look like anyone else, but I do want to maintain a sense of realism and that's been very important to me from the very first time I started playing with those sliders. I can't even say why that is. I used to joke that it was because I was so often surrounded by skinny blonde amazonian supermodel avatars that I liked being different. Now probably not so much. 

I'll echo the sentiment of others here in that you need to have some sort of concept of what is your version of "right" before you start creating. That way you have a goal to stride towards instead of feeling around blindly in the dark hoping one day to just get it right. There's absolutely nothing wrong with changing your appearance daily, or hourly, or never if you feel so inclined. We have the luxury to be able to do so here without the restrictions we otherwise have to deal with like cost (and painful surgery!) in real life. Don't restrict yourself. I agree in that our avatars are little works of art and they do say a lot about us, what we like, how we see ourselves, how we want others to see us or just plain made-up fantasy. A lesson I was told back in University was that an artist knows when to step away from the canvas. That's always stuck with me. I do and I don't agree with it. There's only so many layers of paint you can apply before you warp the canvas, but in digital media you can wipe the slate at any time and start again. It just helps to have some idea of what you want to achieve or explore as the end result; expressionism, abstract, romanticism, pop, avant-garde, or something else completely.

[Christy Costanza]

On 8/21/2019 at 4:37 AM, BelindaN said:

This ^^^ is normal

PS......in fact I reckon there's some biological rewiring going on somehow......maybe it's familiarity. I dunno, but on my alts, I work very hard to get the ultimate look.....in my own eyes obviously. Then after a few days...…...I find it just doesn't give me that initial buzz, so I rework things very gently, and so it repeats.

I wonder if this is why super attractive people in RL never seem to appreciate what they have, and some still go under the knife to "improve"...….

 

Actually i think you have a point there, i never thought of that. Would explain a lot.